Uh, it's not pretty nasty to be dumping on your lawn, dude. They use it at
airports to deice planes--in huge quantities. Ethylene glycol is harmless
to plants and soil bacteria. It's not a persistant pollutant, it is
readily digested by lots of stuff, so dumping it on your lawn is a way to
let nature break it down. The EPA says "Ethylene glycol appears to
represent a low hazard to the environment" for the above reasons. It takes
over 100 grams/milliliter to be toxic to fish.
The reason ethylene glycol is toxic to humans is not because it itself is
toxic but because of metabolites produced after your body breaks it
down--Glycoaldehyde, Glycolic Acid, Glyoxylic acid, and Oxalate. The
treatment for EG poisoning is ethyl alcohol (hard liquer)--lots of it! The
ethyl alcohol competes for the enzymes in your body that digest ethylene
glycol into the toxic by-products.
For you really die-hard science geeks (like me) here are the details of
mammalian ethylene glycol toxicity: The metabolites inhibit oxidative
phosphorylation, sulfhydrl-containing enzymes, and protein synthesis.
Glycolic acid is the major cause of the metabolic acidosis that is seen in
ethylene glycol toxicity, although glyoxylic acid also may contribute.
Toxicity from ethylene glycol is produced from the above metabolites and
the fact that they cause a severe acidosis, as well as from the fact that
oxalate precipitates with calcium to produce widespread tissue injury in
the kidney, brain, liver, blood vessels, and pericardium. Hypocalcemia may
also result.
Sorry for the length but I really hate misinformation and love scientific
stuff like this.
Alex Avery
Director of Research
Hudson Institute
Center for Global Food Issues
'78 280Z and caretaker of dad's SRL311-7278
At 03:19 PM 7/9/01 -0400, JOHNSOF@aol.com wrote:
>Uh, it's pretty nasty to be dumping on your lawn...most municipalities
>suggest pouring it down your toilet, since the waste treatment plant will
>dilute it down and as you say the bacteria will have a chance to break it
>down. I have a septic tank/drain field, so I collect the old antifreeze and
>once a year take it to the county recycling facility where I can dispose of
>it there. I'd like to think that they recycle it, but maybe they dispose of
>it too.
>
>Fred J.
>Wisc.
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